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Letter from Bassetlaw – May 29th 2016

Unusually, it seems that this year’s Spring Bank Holiday is not only dry but reasonably warm! Most years, the end of May seems to be wet and cold so it makes a very pleasant change, especially as this year we have the Referendum campaign & I am spending a lot of my tile out and about.

Anyone who has been following the Referendum cannot help be appalled by the behaviour of the main spokespeople of both sides of the debate, making negative claims that do not stand up when investigated. It is also a shame that the media (both written & broadcast) seem to concentrate of the internecine warfare in the Tory party as there are many people from both sides of the debate, in all parties, that have interesting and pertinent contributions to make.

As anyone who has read my posts will know, I am convinced that the UK is best served by staying in the EU but the utterances of Cameron & Osborne have not helped the Remain side. I wish they would start putting the positive case for staying in the EU, which is strong enough to stand up for itself, without having to over egg what they sat with dubious statistic and hyperbolic claims.

As I have laid out in Why should we Remain?, the five issues I have said are central to the Referendum (Prosperity, Opportunity, Peace, Environment, and Security) all show that we would be better off Remaining in the EU than leaving. We don’t need to make dubious claims or use dodgy numbers, the facts speak for themselves.

All they have left is to lie and deceive in their ever more desperate attempts to hoodwink people into voting for the national suicide. Anyone or any organisation that releases a pro-Remain report and makes a statement that shows that Brexit would cause problems, Brexiteers line up to attack the person involved or claim the organisation is biased towards the EU.

On the ground we are seeing Brexit campaigners who refuse to answer any questions about what would happen after Brexit, resort to name calling of anyone who doesn’t agree with them and use of illegal election activities.

The one thing Brexiteers never do is say what they think will happen in the event of them winning the Referendum and the UK gives notice of its intention to leave the EU within 2 years. They fail to understand the that European Governments will be in no mood to help the UK and will try to defend the integrity of the EU by showing that any exit is messy, hard and costly, if only to dissuade any current EU countries from considering it. Brexiteers do not explain how the UK can conclude the tens of Trade Agreements with countries around the world (many of which may not want to bother with a small offshore European Country), all at the same time, we will need to replace the ones we are part of as a member of the EU. They don’t explain how the NHS will continue to function when we block the recruitment of Doctors & Nurses from across Europe or how will it manage when the expected recession means that the funds needed to the NHS will need to be cut.